


stars in my crown

by deathsweetqueen



Series: i am the heart of a murdered woman [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Mob, F/M, Female Tony Stark, Hindu Tony Stark, Indian Tony Stark, Marriage, Mob Boss Bucky Barnes, Mob Boss Steve Rogers, Multi, Parent Bucky Barnes, Parent Steve Rogers, Parent Tony Stark, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Steve Rogers, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:53:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27243766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathsweetqueen/pseuds/deathsweetqueen
Summary: In which there's a wedding, and Toni's not happy at all when Bucky and Steve's phones start ringing during the ceremony.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: i am the heart of a murdered woman [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1989157
Comments: 26
Kudos: 278
Collections: Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2020, Tony Stark Bingo Mark IV





	stars in my crown

**Author's Note:**

  * For [justanotherpipedream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justanotherpipedream/gifts), [Juulna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Juulna/gifts).



> Obviously, I wanted a more definitive happy ending to the way that the first fic in the series ended, so I decided to end it with a wedding.
> 
> Some of this was inspired by the Family Guy episode where there's a wedding, and the bride is the daughter of a mob boss, and she's getting married to an enforcer, and she gets pissed when the enforcer has to kill someone during the wedding.
> 
> This was written for the "Cinderella Story" square (S3) of the Tony Stark Bingo Mark IV, and the "do you remember who I am?" square (O2) for the Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2020.

Toni smooths her dress down at her thighs.

“How does this look?” she asks aloud.

Rhodey looks up from his half-full glass of champagne. “I have to admit that I’m not exactly the kind of guy that knows anything about wedding dresses,” he points out.

Toni looks over her shoulder with a withering look. “Seriously, what is the point of having you as my maid of honour?”

“I’m your _man_ of honour,” Rhodey stresses. “That doesn’t mean that I am suddenly an expert on what your clothing should be.”

Toni lifts up the skirts of her dress and makes her way over to the couch where he’s sitting and plops herself down beside him.

Peter walks in, in a little suit, tugging at the hems with a disgruntled look on his face.

“Amma, this feels itchy.”

“Oh, honey,” Toni says, sympathetically, leaning froward. “All nice clothes feel itchy.”

Peter pouts. “What about those nice sarees that you wear?”

“Itchy,” Toni replies, conspiratorially, stretching her arms out so that he can climb into her lap.

She smooths her hand over his hair.

“You look very pretty, Amma,” Peter says, shyly.

Toni presses her lips against the side of his head. “Thank you, darling.”

“Are you going to have two weddings?”

“Yes, I think so. One, a white wedding, which is why I’m looking at these white dresses, and then, an Indian wedding as well. I think we might have both of them at the lake house; how does that sound?”

“I like playing with the ducks,” Peter tells her, gravely, “but I really don’t like this suit.”

“Well, baby, if I have to wear this dress, I’m afraid you’re going to have to wear this suit. You look very handsome in it, you know?”

Peter makes a face. “Do I?”

“Like a million bucks, little man,” Rhodey declares, offering Peter his fist to bump.

Peter returns the fist bump. “Are you going to wear a suit too, Uncle Rhodey?”

Rhodey nods. “Sure am.”

“Do you like wearing the suit?”

“Sure I do. Makes the boys and the girls and everyone else crazy for me,” Rhodey says with a wink.

Peter laughs, and then, he pauses. “Do you think MJ will dance with me at the wedding, Amma?”

“I’m sure she’ll find it difficult to say no when she sees you in this tux, baby.”

* * *

She remembers her first wedding.

It was done in a hurry, not the grand society affair that her mother and father would have preferred in the end; she and Ty had rushed to town hall and signed papers and Toni had worn a white cocktail dress and that was it, they were married, and it was done, something that Howard couldn’t take away from her.

Some would have said that she eloped – the gossip magazines actually did say that.

This time around, she wants to do it properly.

Bucky and Steve had proposed – well, calling it a proposal would be overselling it, frankly, because it happened, while they were fucking, and Bucky’s hands tightened on her hips, a sign if anything that he was about to come, and his mouth was a slack, wet smear against the bare curve of her shoulder, and then, he said it, he said, “let’s get married.”

When all three had come, and they were lying in the bed, their legs tangled together, their skin sweat-shiny, Bucky had turned to her and said, “you didn’t answer my question.”

Toni lifted her eyebrow. “You were serious?”

Bucky shrugged. “Well, we’ve been together for a year; we’ve been in love since we were teenagers.”

“Minus the decade of misunderstandings and separation,” Toni said, dryly. 

“I don’t see that there’s any reason why we shouldn’t get married,” Bucky went onto say. “Wait, just–”

He reached over Toni and Steve’s bodies, and the latter made a loud protest at being jostled the way that he is, and Bucky opened up the drawer in their bedside table, pulling out a velvet-lined ring box that Toni gaped at.

She sat up, balancing herself on her elbows. “Wait a second; have you been planning on this?”

Bucky had a poker face on, so she turned to look at Steve, who could always be trusted to spill the beans because he couldn’t lie for shit, and he had a guilty look plastered all over him.

Toni stared at her lovers, and then, made a grab for the ring box lying in Bucky’s palm. She flicked it open.

It was a modest diamond, nothing too big, nothing too small, perfect fit for her petite hand, and she tapped the flat of the diamond with the pad of her finger.

“It’s nice,” she commented.

“We, uh, we talked to Rhodes.”

Toni looked up, curiously.

“We wanted to get permission.”

Toni narrowed her eyes. “You do realise that I’m an adult, and I don’t need anyone’s permission to get married, let alone a man’s,” she pointed out. “And besides, I am the head of my family, so if you really wanted permission, you would have asked me.”

“Yeah, which is why we’re doing that now,” Bucky retorted.

Toni scowled.

Steve took her hand in his and started rubbing her knuckles and the tendons in the back of her hand.

“We do want to marry you,” he says, gently, “which is why we got the ring. We know, uh, we know it’s not the sort of thing that you could probably afford for yourself, and we know some people, you know, that could get us a bigger ring if that’s what you want–”

Toni scowled again and held the ring box close to her chest. “Look, if I wanted big diamonds, I would buy them for myself. I don’t need you to do it for me. I like this ring.”

“Does that mean that you want to marry us?” Steve asked, hope shining across his handsome face.

Toni smoothed her hand over the side of his face, while her other hand curled around Bucky’s knee.

“I’ve been married before,” she murmured.

Bucky made a derisive noise at the back of his throat. “To be honest, baby doll, we don’t consider that to be a proper marriage.”

Toni’s lips stretched upwards. “We had a wedding, a marriage certificate, and our son was not a bastard; I’m pretty sure it was a marriage,” she drawled.

“You know what I mean,” Bucky moaned.

“No, I don’t, actually.”

“I just…” Bucky dragged his hand over his face. “Look, we love you. You love us. We want to spend the rest of our lives with you.”

“It’s not just me,” Toni said, quietly, staring down at her lap.

“Hey,” Bucky said, softly, and his fingers prodded against the underside of her chin so that she would look at him. “We love your son.”

Toni’s throat flexed.

“We love him, not just as your son, but ours as well. He’s _ours_ , as far as I’m concerned. So, yeah, of course we know that it’s not just you. We want to spend the rest of our lives with him too, Toni.”

“Actually,” Steve hesitated for an agonising moment, “that’s something else that we wanted to talk to you about?”

Toni looked at him, curiously.

“We, uh,” Steve exchanged a look with Bucky, “only if you agree, of course, but we want to adopt Peter.”

Toni gaped at him. “Wait, what?”

Steve straightened, as though he was about to go charging into war. “We want to adopt Peter, formally, legally. We want him to be our son; we want both of you to be ours, not just you, Toni. We would never dream of doing something like marrying you without wanting your son to be a part of our family too. He’s not, and I really should stop calling him _your_ son, because that’s not how we see him at all.”

Bucky nodded. “He’s our son too,” he insisted. “He’s ours, and so are you, and we just want to make it official. We want to marry you, and we want to adopt him, and we really hope that you’ll say yes, to both of those things. Marry us, Toni; let us adopt your son; let’s be a family together.”

So, Toni had said yes.

* * *

Toni stressed for days leading up to the conversation with Peter.

And then, finally, Toni decides to bite the bullet and talk to him.

“So, I have something to tell you,” she says, haltingly, taking a seat on the couch opposite him and toeing off her heels so that she can fold her legs underneath her body.

“Is it about the new ring that you’re wearing?” Peter asks, guilelessly.

Toni pauses. “Do you know what the new ring means?”

Peter nods. “Uncle Rhodey told me that when people get married, one person gives the other a diamond ring to ask them to marry them.”

_Thank you for doing half of my work for me, honeybear._

“Yeah, so, uh, well, a few days ago, Bucky and Steve asked me to marry them.”

“Oh,” Peter says, and Toni can’t tell anything about he’s feeling about that from that monosyllabic word.

“And I said yes,” she replies, hurriedly.

“Oh.”

“How do you, uh, how do you feel about that?”

Peter’s brow furrows, and his eyes seem over-bright. “What’s going to happen to me?”

Toni’s heart thuds against his ribs. “Nothing, nothing at all.”

“Flash’s daddy got married again,” Peter says, solemnly. “I heard him talking at recess that he doesn’t spend that much time with him anymore.”

A lump forms in her throat. “That’s not going to happen here,” she says, fiercely, reaching out to take his hands.

“Are you sure?” he asks in a small voice, and honestly, the sound of it makes her chest hurt.

“Absolutely,” Toni insists, and she gets off the couch, ending up on her knees in front of me. “Look at me, Peter.”

Peter has a sullen look on his face, when he drags his eyes up to meet hers.

“You are the love of my life,” she says, her voice tender and soft. “I will never love anyone the way that I love you.”

Peter wrings his hands together in an anxious gesture that reminds Toni of being his age. “What if, what if you have a baby with Steve and Bucky?”

“What if I do?” Toni asks, patiently.

“Won’t you, won’t you love that baby more than you love me?” Peter asks, blinking up at him, and there’s a sheen to his eyes.

“How could I ever love anyone more than I love you?” Toni says, softly, brushing his hair out of his eyes, smoothing her thumb over his cheekbone.

“But you love Steve and Bucky.”

“I do,” Toni agrees.

“Did you love my daddy?”

The words catch up in Toni’s throat, line the inside like acid, and she wrestles for the right words. “I did love your daddy,” she murmurs.

She takes a seat on the couch beside him, and she lifts him up into her lap, so that he can wrap his small arms around her shoulders.

“I loved your daddy very much,” she tells him, clearing her throat.

“Did you love my daddy more than you love Steve and Bucky?”

Toni hesitates for an agonising moment. “I loved your daddy in a different way to how I love Steve and Bucky, but I did love him, Petey-pie.”

“You don’t talk about him very much.”

Toni tries her hardest to flinch, to stop her expression from wavering, and she rakes her fingers through his hair.

_That’s because I killed him, that’s because you’re mine more than you could have ever been his, that’s because I don’t know how to share you, I don’t know how I’m going to share you with Steve and Bucky._

“I don’t,” she agrees. “What do you want to know?”

Peter’s brow knits together, and he considers that question for a moment. “What was he like?”

Toni purses her lips thin. “He was… he was larger than life,” she murmurs. “He was bright and strong and he liked to talk, and he was very, very charming, very persuasive; he could make you do anything. He used to smile a lot. He didn’t have a lot of friends, because he didn’t trust a lot of people, but I was his friend. We were friends since we were very, very little, even younger than you are right now.”

“Wow,” Peter says in a low, awed voice. “You knew him for that long?”

Toni nods with the faintest smile on her face.

“And you married him?”

Toni nods.

“And did he like me?”

Toni’s throat flexes. “Yeah, _kannu_ , he did. He liked you a lot. He _loved_ you, from the first moment that he knew that you existed. He loved you so much.”

_I’ll tell you when you’re older, what he was really like, what he did to me._

Peter gnaws on his lower lip.

“I know this must be strange for you,” she tells him, panic clawing at her throat. “You know, for so long, it was just you and me, you and me against the world, and then, there was Steve and Bucky–”

“I _love_ Steve and Bucky,” Peter tells him, fervently.

Toni’s smile is quivering at the edges. “Is that so?”

Peter nods. “Yeah, Steve draws with me and lets me play with his paints, and Bucky takes me flying,” he tells her, completely chuffed that they would do this for him.

“I think they love you too. In fact, I don’t think anything. I _know_ that they love you. I know that they want the four of us to be a family, and yeah, they want to marry me, but I won’t do anything if you don’t want me to. I meant what I said earlier, baby. I don’t love anyone more than I love you. You are the most important person in my life, and you always will be.”

“Even if you have other babies?”

“Even if I have other babies. You were my first baby. When I had you,” her throat flexes, “when I had you, I didn’t know if I could be a mother. You know, I’ve told you that your _pati_ and _thatha_ , they weren’t, well, they weren’t always there, and so, I thought if I had babies of my own, I wasn’t sure I’d be a good _amma_.”

Peter pouts. “You’re a _great_ amma,” he insists.

Toni’s smile widens. “Thank you for saying that, but when I first found out that you were growing inside me, I thought I wouldn’t be a good one. I was so scared, and then, when they put you in my arms for the first time, and you looked at me–”

She smooths her hair back.

“I realised that if I’d ever thought I could love someone, that meant _nothing_ compared to what I feel for you, Peter Pan,” she murmurs, rubbing her thumb over his rounded, soft cheek. “I feel the same way right now.” She licks her lips. “If you don’t want me to marry Steve and Bucky, I won’t marry them.”

“But you love them!”

“I do, but I love you more,” Toni says, simply.

Peter chews on his lower lip. “But you shouldn’t have to _not_ marry them because of me,” he says, sullenly.

“Why not?”

“Because that’s not fair!”

“Why is that not fair?”

“Because I want you to be happy,” he says, fervently.

“I am so happy,” she says, her voice thick, barely biting back the sob that rises in her throat. “because I have you, and I have Steve and Bucky, and I have Uncle Rhodey and Aunt Pepper and Uncle Bruce, and I have all of these amazing friends. I am so happy, Peter. You don’t need to worry about my happiness.”

Peter considers her for a moment. “I think you should get married,” he says, finally.

Toni blinks, uncomprehending. “Why do you say that?”

Peter shrugs. “Because you love Steve and Bucky, and they love you, and aren’t you supposed to get married when you love someone.”

“Well, it’s not always that simple, but…” Toni hesitates, “are you sure about this?”

“I like Steve and Bucky,” Peter says, earnestly. “They like me too, don’t they?”

Toni rubs at her damp eyes. “I think they love you, baby. Actually,” she inhales, audibly, “there’s something else that I wanted to talk to you about.”

Peter looks at her, curiously. “What is it?”

“Well, at the same time that Bucky and Steve asked me to marry them, they also asked whether they could adopt you.”

Peter’s brow furrows. “What’s that mean? Adopt?”

Toni runs her tongue under her teeth. “Well, it means… we would be family, all four of us, more than just the three of us getting married; it would mean that you would be their son too. When you were born, there was this certificate that we had to fill out, your father and I, and I had to put it down that I’m your mother, and that Ty, your father was your father, and we had to file it with the government, which means that legally, completely, more than just the fact that I had you in my belly, you are mine. If Steve and Bucky adopted you, that would mean that you would legally be theirs too.” She pauses. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Peter’s brow furrows. “I _think_ so? So, does that mean if Steve and Bucky adopted me, they would be my daddies too?”

“Yeah, they would be.”

“Oh,” Peter says, lamely.

“Is that okay?” she braves.

Peter frowns. “I think so,” he says, carefully. “Do they, are they doing this because they love me?”

“Yeah, honey, they are.”

“Oh.” Peter’s throat works. “I love them too,” he says, shyly.

Toni’s chest hurts. “I’m so glad to hear that,” she replies, her voice trembling. “So, does that mean that you want them to be your daddies? Would you be okay with that? I mean, you wouldn’t have to call them that if you don’t want to–”

“Do they not want me to?” Peter demands, a pout forming.

“No, no, I mean, I haven’t talked about it with them yet, but I’m sure they wouldn’t want to adopt you if they wouldn’t want you to call them _Daddy_.” Toni gnaws on her lower lip. “How about we, uh… actually, Steve and Bucky are on their way over here. I wanted to talk to you first, but how about when they come, you run up to them and you give them a big hug, and you call them Daddy?” she offers. “But only if you feel comfortable doing that.”

Peter purses his lips. “What if they don’t like it?”

“Well, then, I’m sure they’ll tell you what they’d like for you to call them,” she offers. She hesitates. “Would it bother you a lot if you couldn’t call them Daddy?”

Peter shrugs and starts fidgeting with his hands. “I don’t know. I’ve never called them Daddy before,” he reminds her, solemnly. “Amma?”

“Yeah, _kannu_?”

“Do you think Daddy would be angry at me for wanting to call Steve and Bucky Daddy?” Peter wonders out loud, looking up at Toni with those guileless, liquid-dark eyes.

Toni pauses. “I think… he’d want you to be happy and safe and loved,” she hedges, or rather, lies straight through her teeth. “I think… he wouldn’t mind because he wasn’t here to be a Daddy for you, and he’d rather have someone love you in that way than for you to go without it.”

“Oh.” Peter looks thoughtful. “Okay, then, when Steve and Bucky come over, I’ll give them a big hug and call them Daddy.”

Toni smooths his hair back away from his face. “Amma loves you more than anything, Petey-pie,” she murmurs, her heart swelling in her chest.

Peter grins up at her, and she can see the tooth in the corner of his smile that is wobbling. “I love you too, Amma.”

* * *

When Bucky and Steve stride into the penthouse, Peter abandons Toni and the Lego Death Star that they’re building, rushing across the expanse of the lounge so that he can throw himself into Steve’s arms. Steve catches him with a laugh and swings him up into the air.

“Hey, Petey-pie,” Steve says, cheerfully, pressing a smacking kiss to the side of his head. “What are you and your Amma building?”

“A Lego Death Star, you know, from Star Wars,” Peter replies, poking at Steve’s bicep with amazement.

And then, he looks up at Steve through the dip of his eyelashes, looking shy, and he says, “Have you watched Star Wars, Daddy?”

For a moment, the earth stills, and Toni feels her heart climb into her throat, as she waits for the moment to shatter.

Steve clears his throat. “Did you, did you just call me Daddy, Peter?”

“I did,” Peter replies, high and haughty. “Is that a problem?”

Steve clears his throat again, sounding as though there’s something stuck in it. “No, no at all.”

“Uh, Pete, you sure you’re okay with calling us that?” Bucky clarifies.

“Do you not want me to call you daddy, Daddy?” Peter asks, innocently.

Bucky stares at him for a moment, and then, he promptly bursts into tears, taking Peter from Steve’s arms so that he can clutch at Peter. Peter doesn’t hesitate to throw his arms around Bucky’s shoulders and kiss him on the cheek, and honestly, that just makes him cry harder.

Toni surreptitiously indicates for JARVIS to record the scene, as she makes her way forward to three out of her five favourite boys in the universe. She rests her hand on Peter’s back.

“We had a conversation about getting married and the two of you wanting to adopt him,” she explains, reasonably, “and he asked if he could call you both Daddy.”

There is a sheen of tears in Steve’s eyes. “Of course you can call us Daddy. We’d be honoured, Pete,” he says, his voice rough with emotion. “So, uh, what do you think about us adopting you?”

“Amma says that would mean that I’m your baby like I’m hers,” Peter tells them, firmly.

“Yeah, you would be. Are you okay with that?” Bucky asks, scrubbing the tears from his eyes.

“Yeah, I think so. I mean, I already love you and Steve, and Amma said that if you’re gonna adopt me, that means you love me too.”

“We do, Peter,” Steve says, his voice grave like he’s swearing a vow. “We love you so much. We already think of you as ours.”

“Okay, then, I’d like for you to adopt me,” he says, politely.

Bucky’s arms tighten around him. “Then, we’ll adopt you,” he promises, and then, swings Peter up so that he can throw his legs over Bucky’s shoulders.

Peter squeals. “Amma, can you see me? I’m like a superhero.”

“Yeah, _kannu_ , I can see you,” Toni says, fondly, pressing a swift kiss to the corner of Steve’s mouth, and then, to Bucky’s as well.

“How did he take the engagement news?” Steve asks, his hand falling to her hip.

“I think he took it well, to be honest,” she says, wistfully. “I think I’m going to fail in getting him into a tux, though.”

“I think you’re going to fail getting _Bucky_ into a tux,” Steve snorts.

Toni sends him a withering look. “Let’s not pretend that you’re the pinnacle of haute couture.”

“Can I wear my kilt?”

Toni closes her eyes, getting ready to retort with something exasperated and disbelieving, but then, she imagines it, and her eyes pop open.

“Huh, now, that’s an image.”

* * *

Her wedding day looms a lot earlier than she was expecting.

It’s not an intense ceremony, thank God. She doesn’t have bridesmaids; she has attendants, that being Pepper and Bruce and Happy, and a man of honour, being Rhodey, and so do Bucky and Steve, who go with Sam and Natasha and Clint.

It’s a little uneven on her end, but that’s okay, because Sam and Natasha and Clint and Thor are her family too.

Peter walks her down the aisle, and the collective _aww_ that comes from the crowd gathered is absolutely worth the crick in her neck.

Of course, it all goes to shit when she finally gets to the front of the aisle, and just as Thor begins to officiate the ceremony, Bucky and Steve’s phones begin to ring, shrilly.

Toni sends them a flat look. “You have got to be kidding me,” she says.

Bucky’s throat flexes, and she watches as he peers down at the screen of his phone, flicking away the call. His expression shifts, when he reads the text message that follows. Steve has the same look on his face.

“Okay, you’re going to get mad at us–” Steve says, soothingly.

“I’m not going to get mad at you,” she says, lightly.

“Yes, you are.”

“So, tell me _why_ I’m going to get mad at you.”

“We just have to go and do something,” Bucky says, hurriedly.

Toni purses her lips thin.

The look that Steve and Bucky exchange does not fall short of alarming.

“Okay, so, something has come up,” Steve goes onto say, “and we might have to go and _deal with it_.”

The way that he says _deal with it_ raises Toni’s hackles.

“When you say _deal with it_ –”

Toni sends an uncertain look Peter’s way, who is standing by Rhodey’s hip, completely bemused and oblivious as to what’s going on.

“We mean _deal with it_ ,” Bucky says, his shoulders slumping.

Toni narrows her eyes, and then, she turns to the dozen of their friends who are gathered there, and tells them, with a brilliant, rigid smile that is often featured on her Instagram, missing that soft, vaguely flirtatious edge that she uses with Steve and Bucky in private, “give us a second, would you?”

She tangles her hands with Bucky and Steve and leads them away to a corner where they can speak privately.

Toni’s hands are on her hips. “What the hell is going on here?” she demands.

“There is a girl–”

Toni makes a soft noise of disgust, before it morphs into something high-pitched, that might actually become a shriek if she opened her mouth.

“Don’t,” Bucky warns. “You’re jumping to conclusions that don’t make sense here.”

Toni allows herself calm down, and she pinches the bridge of her nose. “Okay, keep going with your explanation,” she says, faultlessly polite.

“There’s this girl. Her name is Sharon, Sharon Carter. She runs this, uh, diner out in Brooklyn. She’s, she’s on the young side, around eighteen. She says that she’s been hearing some things, about these guys who are going to make a play for the diner, maybe to rob or fuck with or do something to it,” Steve explains. “We need to go over and make sure that everything’s okay, that _she’s_ okay.”

Toni stares at them. “Are you seriously saying that you want to walk out on our wedding so that you can stop this diner from going up in flames and stop something horrible from happening to this girl?”

Steve and Bucky nod, firmly.

Toni pinches the bridge of her nose. “You two suck,” she stresses.

Bucky and Steve kiss her soundly.

“Can’t you just send the others, though?” Toni complains. “I mean, there’s four of them; can’t they handle it? And you have other guys too.”

“Yeah, but Sharon doesn’t really like anyone other than Steve and Nat.”

Toni pauses. “I don’t know how I feel about the fact that one of the only two people that this eighteen-year-old girl likes is the guy I’m about to marry.” She pauses. “Is she pretty?”

Bucky and Steve shrug in acquiescence.

“Huh,” Toni drags out. “Do you think that makes me a terrible person? That I’m immediately suspicious of what the two of you are doing with another woman?”

Bucky shrugs. “Toni, doll, if you were telling me that you were ditching our wedding to go and help some eighteen-year-old guy, I wouldn’t be so fucking stoked either.”

Toni’s brow knits together. “I don’t think I’m unhappy because I think you’re going away from here to cheat on me with someone else. I think I’m unhappy because I’ve been waiting for this day for a while, and I don’t want it to be… you know, put off or reduced in any way, but if this girl is in danger, well, that’s more important, okay? You should go. _Go_ ,” she says, wearily.

Bucky rubs his hand over his face. “Look, we’ll be back in no time, I swear–”

“No.”

Toni and Bucky look at Steve, and Toni’s brow is furrowed.

“What is it?” Toni asks, gently.

“No, we shouldn’t do this,” Steve says, his eyes focused on Toni and then, they make their way to the set-up of the wedding behind them.

“Steve,” Bucky says, his voice betraying his uncertainty.

“I mean, it’s our _wedding_ day,” Steve insists. “This is… this is supposed to be the beginning of our family, our lives together; you, me, Toni and Peter. The four of us, like it always should have been. I don’t… I don’t want anything to ruin that. I know Sharon needs our help. I think we should send Nat and Clint and Thor. Between the three of them, they can handle it.”

“Thor was going to officiate the wedding,” Toni reminds him. “We might be missing a key component of the wedding if he leaves.”

Steve shrugs. “Sam can do it. He has that Internet thing too, because he said, and I quote, _I’m not trusting, with our luck, that your wedding’s going to go ahead as planned, so we should probably have a back-up plan_.” He shakes his head. “I don’t know why he got the idea that something was going to go wrong.”

Toni, wisely, does not point out the obvious in an attempt to start their marriage on the right foot.

In her mind, though, she’s imagining all of the things that she can buy Sam for having the gift of foresight where they are all concerned.

“Okay, okay, uh, but I don’t want to be _that_ woman, okay?” she says, resisting the urge to smooth her hand over her hair, which would most certainly muss it up beyond correction. “The woman who prioritises the unimportant things and makes you feel bad for doing your jobs, especially when that job involves saving an eighteen-year-old girl from burglars or gangsters or general hoodlum-variety villains. I’m just, I don’t want to be _that_ wife.”

“Hey,” Bucky says, gently, and his big, warm palms land on her shoulders, his thumbs dragging over the sharp curve of her collarbone. “Look at me.”

Toni sighs, and she tips her head back to catch his eyes with hers.

“You are the important thing in our life, okay?” Bucky says, firmly, and Toni feels her lungs constrict in response.

“Toni, our jobs are important, just like yours is, but we _love_ you. That’s it. In this relationship, what we have with each other comes above everything, and Peter comes above all of us,” Steve agrees, and Toni feels the tears edging her eyes.

“You are going to make me ruin my mascara, and then, Pepper will absolutely kill you,” she says, roughly.

“That’s a small price to say,” Steve says and dips his head down to brush his mouth over hers, curling a hand around the nape of her neck.

Toni feels herself melt on the inside and drapes her arms around his shoulder, before she throws herself into Bucky’s arms, thoroughly sticking her tongue down his throat as well, until she hears the impatient rhythm of Pepper’s stiletto heel tapping against the wooden floor.

“Excuse me,” Pepper says, sternly, “can you please start the wedding night on your time? Because there’s a bunch of people, who are sitting here expecting a wedding, and that’s not what you’re giving them right now.”

“We’re just deciding some of the minutia,” Toni stresses.

“No, you’re making out with your almost grooms, and this isn’t the show that your guests were expecting. Now, stop it and come and explain what’s going to happen.” Pepper’s blue eyes flit to Steve and Bucky. “By the way, if you two ditch my best friend at the altar, Rhodey and I are going to hurt you,” she says, cheerfully.

“She will,” Toni says, conspiratorially, hooking her arms through Bucky and Steve’s. “She has deadly aim with those shoes.”

“I learned it from her,” Pepper tells them, solemnly. “We had a lesson plan and everything.”

* * *

In the end, Steve and Bucky don’t leave in the middle of the ceremony, and Rhodey and Pepper don’t have to kill them.

Clint and Nat and Thor _do_ go, though, and Sharon’s diner is saved, and Pepper makes a horrified noise when Clint and Nat and Thor return in the middle of the Hindu ceremony, covered in blood, but Toni just waves her hand, dismissively, because Steve doesn’t have a sister and Bucky doesn’t have a sister but Natasha is his cousin-sister, and Toni needs someone to finish the last knot on her _thali_ once Steve and Bucky have tied the first two.

Natasha’s fingers are stained with blood when she completes the last note, awkwardly hanging off Rhodey’s shoulders, considering that Toni is still seated on his lap, since all of her male relatives are dead now, and Rhodey is the closest thing to a brother that Toni will ever have.

Toni climbs off Rhodey’s lap, and the only _vaadhyar_ in probably the whole world who was willing to do an Iyengar wedding ceremony for a woman and two men directs them to start doing the seven rounds around the _agni_. She links her fingers with Steve in front of her and Bucky behind her, and they start doing the seven rounds, and on the seventh round, everyone rises to their feet and start clapping, cheering, shouting, rising in a clamour, and Toni is laughing with her arms around Steve and Bucky.

“One last thing,” Toni murmurs, and she takes a seat where Rhodey had just said, so that she can rest the pad of her foot on Steve and Bucky’s upturned thighs, so that they can slip the silver toe rings onto her second toe on either foot.

Her feet slip from their thighs, and they lift her into their arms, and she dips down just quick enough to catch Peter who finally escapes Pepper’s hold in her arms, pulling him up so that she can press a swift kiss to his apple-round kiss.

And then, Steve and Bucky each plant a kiss on Peter’s cheeks as well, and he tries to wriggle his way out of Toni’s arms, squealing, but she doesn’t let him go, allowing the flurry of kisses to fall on her son, now their son.

It might be her feet so close to the _agni_ , but this is the warmest she’s felt in years.


End file.
